A raccoon that strayed where it shouldn’t have caused a power outage that affected almost 4,500 customers on La Crosse’s North Side late Saturday, an

Xcel Energy official said Monday.
The critter came into contact with energized equipment about 11:50 p.m. Saturday at the North Side substation on Lang Drive, shutting down half the station and power to 4,477 customer, Xcel spokesman Brian Elwood said.

Power was restored to 3,868 customers by 12:28 a.m. Sunday and to the remaining 609 customers about 20 minutes later, he said.

A faulty underground cable caused a four-hour power outage on the Viterbo University campus Monday, Elwood said.

Only 27 customers lost power at about 3:20 p.m., and it was restored by 7:26 p.m., Elwood said.

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